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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE TAXPAYER 



ANt> 






AN" ADDRESS DELIVERED ,TULY 2, 1891, BEFORE THE STATE 
teachers' ASSOCIATIOJSr OF NEW JERSEY BY 



Editor of flie School Bulletin. 




SYRACUSE, ]sr. Y.: 
C. .W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER. 

1891. 



-THE SCHOOL BULLETIN PUBLICATIONS.- 



School Issues of the Day. 

1. Denominational Schools. Discussion at the National Association, 1889, 
by Cardinal Gibbons, Bishop Keane, Edwin D. Meade, and John Jay. Pp. 
71. 25cts. 

3. The Educational Valve of Manual Training, by Wjt. T. Harris, LL.D., 
Commissioner of Education. Pp. 14. 15 ets. 

S. Art Education the True Industrial Education, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. 
Pp. 9. 15 cts. 

h. Methods of Intrudion.and Courses of Study in Normal Schools, by Thom- 
as J. Gray, LL.D., President Colorado State Normal School. Pp. 19. 15 cts. 

5. Pedagogical Chairs in Colleges and Universities, by B. A. Hinsdale, 
Ph.D., Professor of Peda^o^y in the University of Michigan. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 

6. Opportunities of the Eural Poor for Higher Education, hj Proi. James 
H, Canfibld, University of Kansas. Pp. 24. 15 cts. 

7. Honorary Degrees as Conferred in American Colleges, by Prof. Chas. 
Foster Smith, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University. Pp. 9. 15 cts. 

S. The Present Status of the Township System, by C. W. Bardeen, Editor 
of the School Bulletin. Witli an appendix containing tlie Compulsory Law as 
introduced into the New York Legislature of 1890. Pp. 00. 40 cts. 

9. Effect of the College- Preparatorij High School xipon Attendance and 
Scholarship in the Lower Grades, by C. W. Bardeen, Pp. 5. 15 cts. 

10. " Organization " and " System " vs. Originality and Individuality in 
the Teacher, by Henry Sabin, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
Iowa, with opening of the discussion by C. W. Bardeen. Pp. 9. 15 cts. 

11. Examinations as Tests for Promotion, by Wm. H. Maxwell, Ph.D., 
Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y. Pp. 11. 15 cts. 

12. Compulsory Laws and their Enforcement, by Oscar R. Cooper, State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Texas. Pp. 6. 15 cts. 

13. University and Sclvool Extension, by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 12. 
15 cts. 

Ik. The General Government and Public Education tlvroughout the Country, 
by Wm. T. Harris, LL.D. Pp. 8. 15 cts. 

15. Report on. Pedagogical and Psychological Observation, by Wm. T. Hak- 
Kis, LL.D. Pp. G. 15 cts. 

|^°" The 15 Numbers will be sent to any address on receipt of $1.50, or 
bound in half leather for $2.00. 

Nos. 1 \;o 7 were I'ead at the meeting of the National Association in 1889, 
and Nos. 9 to 15 at the meeting of the National Association in 1890. No. 8 
was read at the meeting of School Commissioners and Superintendents in 
New York City, 1888. 

C. W. BARDEEN, Publislier, Syracuse, N. Y, 



THE TAXPAYER 



AND 




AIS" ADDEESS DELIVEEED JULY 2, 1891, BEFOEE THE STATE 
TEACHEES' ASSOCIATION OF KEW JEESEY BY 



^ 



IV-' N'. •^ 



./ 



u 
Editor of the School Bulletin. 




/^ 



SYEACUSE, ]S'. Y. : 

C. W. BAEDEEN, PUBLISHEE. 
1891. 



r)t 






BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



Some Facts about our Public Schools. A Plea for the Township System. An address be- 
fore the New York State Association of School Commissioners and City Superintendents, 
Feb. 20, 1878. 8vo, pp. 32, 25 cents. 

The Present Status of the Township System. An Address before the New York State 
Teachers' Association, July 10, 1878. {Not printed.) 

The Present Status of the Township System. An Address before the New York State 
Association of School Commissioners and City Superintendents, Jan. 9, 1889. With an ap- 
pendix containing the bill introduced in the Legislature of 1890. 8vo, pp. 60, 40 cents. 

Effect of the College Preparatory High School upon Attendance and Scholarship in the Lower 
Grades. An Address before the Department of Secondary Education of the National Edu- 
cational Association, July 9, 1890. 8vo, pp. 5, 15 cents. 

Educational Journalism. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Associa- 
tion, July 6, 1881. 8yo, pp. 30. {Now out of print.) 

Teaching as a Business for Men. An Address before the National Educational Associa- 
tion, July 17, 1885. 8vo, pp. 20, 25 cents. 

The Teach£r''s Commercial Value. An Address before the New York State Teachers' 
Association, July 9, 1885. 8vo, pp. 20, 25 cents. 

Th£ Ideal Teachsr. An Address before the New York State Teachers' Association, 
July 8, 1891. 8vo, pp. 24, 25 cents. 

" Organization " and " System " vs. Originality in the Teacher. An Address before the 
National Educational Association, July, 11, 1890, by Henbt Sabin, State Superintendent of 
Iowa, with opening of the Discussion by C. W. Baedeen. 8vo, pp. 9, 15 cents. 



s 



t^ 



THE TAXPAYER AND THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM. 



The first condition of progress is the recognition of settled issues. 
In wise minds debate precedes decision but never follows it. I 
have read of an old man who replied to a younger friend whous 
attacked one of his beliefs : '' Sir, my mind is weakened ; I am no 
longer able to argue with you. But when my powers were as vig- 
orous as yours are I studied this question carefully, and I reached 
a conclusion which experience has made a .conviction. I have no 
skill to defend it, but I have faith to trust it; I forget the solution, 
but I am sure the answer is correct." Life results in little to those 
who have not something of this spirit. The algebra of human 
thought must have some known quantities. The man who can 
never clear either side of his equation from x's will never advance. 

Education abounds in problems. Its nature, its applications, 
its methods are matters of question in every detail. No two of 
you would give the same definition of education, unless you had 
committed some one else^s to memory for use in an examination ; 
and as an assembly you would be divided and subdivided if it 
were asked whether mental arithmetic should form a special recita- 
tion, whether spelling should be taught orally, whether there 
should be a recess, whether the building should have as many class- 
rooms as teachers, or department and recitation-rooms. 

And yet well-read teachers know that some questions are settled. 
It is settled that reading should not be taught by the a, b, c method ; 
that light should come from the left and rear ; that drawing and 
form-study are an integral part of the common-school curriculum. 
If a man wants to argue on these topics, you refer him to discus- 
sions where his points were made a good deal stronger than he is 
making them, and finally answered. During the war, a Boston 
merchant was discussing with another some detail of the President's 
policy. Finding that they were reasoning from different premises, 
one said to the other, " Why, you are assuming that slavery is 
wrong ! " The other stopped short, looked at his companion in 
disgust, and said as he turned away, ''My friend, I am willing to 
contribute liberally for the general education of the masses, but I 
can't spend time to instruct an individual fool." 



If preponderance of opinion among those who are qualified to 
judge is the criterion, no educational question is more positively 
settled than the superiority of the township system. In the 
report of the New York Department of Public Instruction for 1889 
may be found all the extracts from State reports referring to the 
township system, that a careful search had been able to gather. 
There are 152 of them, and every one, every one, is in its favor. 

There are also given in detail the 350 replies to 700 circu- 
lars sent out to the leading educational men of the country. 
These replies come from 37 State Superintendents, 40 Normal 
Principals, 118 City Superintendents, 66 High School Principals, 
and 83 County Superintendents. 

Omitting the village-school principals and school-commissioners 
of New York, and the county superintendents of Pennsylvania, as 
likely to have rather local than broadly representative opinions, 
adding the unclassified names of Henry Barnard, Wm. T. Harris, 
W. A. Bell, Geo. P. Brown, Wm. A. Mowry, Wm. E. Sheldon, ' 
Zalmon Richards, and John E. Park, and omitting answers where 
doubt is expressed, the verdict of 185 of the most prominent 
educators of the country is as follows : 

May it, in your opinion, be considered a principle fairly estab- 
lished by argument and experiment, that the township is preferable 
to the district system of schools ? Yes, by 156 to 5. 

Do you think the following advantages are justly claimed by the 
township system : 

{a) Equal school privileges ? Yes, by 150 to 5. 

{h) Equal taxation ? Yes, by 145 to 3. 

(c) Impartial selection of teachers ? Yes, by 144 to 9. 

{d) Higher education extended ? Yes, by 143 to 7. 

{e) Increased interest in and respect for schools ? Yes, by 140 
to 5. 

(/) Economy of more wholesale and intelligent expenditure ? 
Yes, by 143 to 4. 

There is no going behind these returns ; indeed, when the replies 
are examined in detail the vote becomes even stronger, for as a 
rule the more prominent the man the more emphatic is his testimony 
for the township system, while the objections are almost without 
exception directed against unessential features of certain particular 
systems, as those of Pennsylvania or Indiana. The vote is on the 
whole stronger than if it were unanimous, for the few exceptions 
prove that it is a thoughtful expression of opinion. And it is the 
verdict of experience ; for 92 out of 163 had served as teachers or 
school-ofiQcers under both systems. 



It may be asked tlien why if educational men are agreed that the 
township system is desirable it is not already made universal ; why 
does not the practice of these educational leaders correspond with 
their theory ? 

To this it may be replied in the first place that the township 
system is constantly extending. To Pennsylvania and Indiana, 
which used to represent it, have been added Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, West Virginia, and Alabama under compulsory laws, 
and Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, as well as 
New Jersey, under permissive laws, with a constant increase in the 
number of towns adopting this system. Of the Dakotas the last 
Report of the Commissioner, of Education quotes from the State 
Superintendent as follows : 

'' Seventy-six counties of the Territory have the township sys- 
tem, and fifteen the district system. The two plans have been in 
direct contrast, and with the exception of the fact that the district 
brings the people into close relations with the schools, all the 
arguments are in favor of the township district. * * * It is 
very desirable that the Legislature place those fifteen counties 
under the township plan like the other seventy-six counties." 

In most other States constant effort is making in this direction. 
Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota are keeping the question 
before the people. The leaders of New York are thoroughly com- 
mitted to it by repeated vote of the association of school-officers, 
and by the active effort of the Department of Public Instruction. 
During the past year it has been quite a feature of the county- 
institute work to call together the trustees and discuss the ques- 
tion. In every instance, so far as I know, these men have come 
with prejudices based on ignorance of the system, and have gone 
away ready to vote for it. In short it is with us a campaign of 
education ; and when the rural voters of New York have learned 
what the township system is and what it will do for them we shall 
have it. 

But like all reforms it takes time to accumulate momentum 
enough to overcome inertia. 

The commonest objection is that the system is of little conse- 
quence anyway — it is the teacher that makes the school : an argu- 
ment often epitomized in President Garfield's statement that a 
bench in a log-cabin, with him on one end and Mark Hopkins on 
the other was as good a college as he cared for. This is plausible : 
in public gatherings it is usually applausible and applauded : and 
yet it will hardly bear analysis. 



6 

In the first place, though. Mark Hopkins sitting on one end of a 
bench could do much for a man, he could do more for him with 
the organization of a great institution — its buildings, faculty, 
library, and associations that in time make the very spirit of the 
place an education in itself. 

In the second place, though a bench with Mark Hopkins on one 
end and Jimmy Garfield on the other would be a good enough 
college for Jimmy Garfield, it wouldn^t be a good enough college 
for Mark Hopkins. What was there in the canal-boy to warrant 
a man like Mark Hopkins in sitting on a bench four years simply 
to talk to him ? 

You know the famous French picture of " The Education of a 
Prince." The youngster still in petticoats is rolling down soldiers 
with a tiny wooden ball, while lords and ladies look on as much 
interested in his strokes as though the fate of empires hung in the 
balance. But that won^t do here, where all our children are born 
princes ; there wouldn't be grandees enough to go around. So our 
babies have to set up their own nine-pins, and our Jimmy Gar- 
fields must take their chances with the crowd. 

And finally, if there had been only a log-cabin at Williamstown, 
Mark Hopkins would never have been there at all ; he would have 
been practising medicine in Springfield. It takes a great institu- 
tion to secure the services of a great man ; and the more perfect 
our system of public schools, the better teachers it will command. 
There are men who love the work so well that they would sacrifice 
the money and position and social advantages that other callings 
offer if only they could be sure of the necessary opportunities to 
do their best in the school-room ; but who are every year leaving 
the profession because of the ignorance, the indifference, and often 
the insolence of local trustees, elected at hazard because the inter- 
ests of a single school-district are considered too small to be worth 
the trouble of careful selection. It is an insignificant office, to be 
passed around among those who want it, if there are such, or if 
nobody wants it to be forced upon those least capable of making 
resistance. 

But what are the duties of a Kew Jersey board of school-trustees ? 
Mainly (1) to be the executive officers of the district, (2) to make 
rules and regulations, (3) to prescribe the course of study, (4) to 
suspend or expel pupils, (5) to employ teachers. 

(1) To he the executive officers of the district. They are to call 
special meetings whenever they deem it proper ; to purchase, 
build, repair, enlarge, furnish, insure, lease, mortgage or sell 



school-property^ with power to permit its use for other than 
school purposes ; to purchase personal property, and to receive, 
lease, and hold in fee, in trust for their district, any and all real or 
personal property for the benefit of their schools ; to provide books 
for indigent children ; and to make an annual report. 

All this requires exact, far-sighted business-men. Have you 
three such men in each of the fourteen hundred districts of the 
State who will give their time and attention to the distribution of 
the small sums involved — in more than a hundred districts 1275 
or less ? 

Some years ago I was talking with President Milne of the Albany 
Normal College when the State Superintendent approached and 
asked if he should interrupt a private conversation. 

'^Not in the least," said Dr. Milne; ''we were just argreeing 
that of every dollar that New York spends for public education, 
seventy-five cents is wasted.^' 

''And why ?" he asked. 

"Because we have not learned to conduct our educational affairs 
upon a business basis." 

"Precisely what I said before the National Association," replied 
the Superintendent. "When I have hired a man to chop wood 
and he comes for his pay, I ask him to show me the pile of wood. 
But when the teacher calls for his month^s salary, and is asked 
whether he has put his scholars a month ahead in scholarship, 
mental growth, and general culture, all he can say is that he holds 
a certificate and has spent six hours a day in the school-room." 

How many of our present trustees are cajoable of finding out and 
will take the trouble to find out whether their teachers are putting 
their pupils a month ahead in scholarship, mental growth, and 
general culture ? 

But not only is money expended for useless teaching, — the ma- 
terial property of the district is grossly wasted. How many school- 
houses are to-day unfit for occupancy, useless for the purpose 
designed, and hence a waste of the money of the district, only 
because they were not properly built, or have not been kept in 
repair because no competent person has made it his business to 
look after them. 

In the furniture and apparatus of the school-room this wasteful- 
ness is appalling. Teachers frequently complain because the dis- 
trict will not purchase the needed globe and maps and dictionary, 
and attribute the refusal to penuriousness. Seldom, I believe, is 
this the real cause. There are few districts in this State which 
have not, under the inspiration of an energetic and successful 



teaclier^ provided liberally for school-room apparatus. While the 
energetic and successful teacher remained, the apparatus was in 
daily use and under excellent care. But this teacher was soon 
succeeded, under your system of hiring, by another who knew 
little of such appliances and cared nothing for them. No system of 
supervision held this teacher responsible for the apparatus, and he 
let it lie neglected, to be used only as playthings for mischievous 
boys. The district contributed freely to purchase it ; but when 
they saw how it was used, they felt themselves imposed upon, and 
resolved never again to be deluded into purchasing more than the 
barest necessities. 

Nay, the purchasing itself is often absurd and wasteful. The 
country trustee is the recognized prey of unscrupulous agents. He 
is deluded into buying, often led to believe that the law compels 
him to buy, charts and maps and apparatus either needless or at 
extravagant prices. This is a double calamity to the district, for 
it wastes their money at the time, and by reaction prevents subse- 
quent needed purchases. A burnt child dreads the fire. 

All this may be remedied simply by making the township the 
unit, instead of the district. Then you have a larger area to 
choose your trustees from, the interests become important enough 
to command the attention of the best men, and there is the general 
economy of wholesale purchase and care-taking. 

(2) To make rules and regulations. You all know how dijBBcult 
this is, and how much depends upon it. To be sure the trustees 
usually neglect it, leaving it to the teacher ; but the inexperienced 
teacher often needs the support of a wise system, and the capable 
teacher is often hampered by rules imposed upon him by those 
who know nothing of the needs of the school. 

(3) To prescribe the course of study. This duty is often neg- 
lected, but who would leave the classification of pupils, the methods 
of teaching, the very selection of subjects in which instruction 
shall be given, to the capricious will of inexperienced and con- 
stantly shifting teachers ? But are you likely to find in every 
district in the State three trustees capable of fixing a course of 
study, and willing to devote to it the labor required ? 

(4) To suspend or expel pupils. In a State where corporal 
punishment is forbidden this is the one final resort, the only basis 
of authority. But it is the most momentous question that ever 
arises in school government. On the one hand the boy's future 
may hang in the balance ; and even if the greatest good of the 
greatest number seems to require his expulsion, if he be a boy of 



9 

influence among his fellows it is to be considered whether he will 
not harm the school more on the outside than as a pupil. On the 
other hand, the teacher is wholly at the mercy of the trustee as to 
the sustaining of his authority. There is no effective law without 
a penalty, and here the final penalty of the school-law instead of 
being fixed is subject to the caprice of the trustees. To exercise 
this judicial function properly requires broad intelligence, and care- 
ful consideration of every case presented. Are you sure of these in 
the men elected trustees throughout the State ? 

(5) To employ teacJiers. Here is the fundamental question of 
success in school : as is the teacher, so is the school. But you, 
who have most of you had experience, know how difficult it is to 
predict who will be successful teachers. You know how little is 
implied in the grade of a certificate, and of what slight value are 
recommendations. Can three men be found in every district in 
this State capable to judge what kind of a teacher their school 
needs, and whether the applicant is that kind of a teacher ? capable 
to judge of his literary, moral, and social qualifications ? large- 
minded enough to judge him by what he is, and not by how little 
he will teach for ? 

These questions are self -answering. Men cannot be found in all 
these 1,400 districts capable of exercising these functions ; and if 
the right men were there they would hesitate to give their time to 
the care of so small a school. 

The three parties most interested in this question are the tax- 
payer, the teacher and the pupil. Let us consider how each in 
turn would be benefited by the township system. 

I. THE TAX PAYEE. 

It is the fundamental principle on which economy of expendi- 
ture depends, that you must get what you pay for. If you build a 
house and the plumber's bill swells to four times the architect's 
estimate you feel like grumbling, but eventually you accustom 
yourself to it and if the plumbing proves a good job you grow to 
be rather proud of it. But if the next week after you pay the bill a 
faucet leaks in the bath-tub, followed by the freezing of the waste- 
pipe, the bursting of a water-back, the failure of a closet, and the 
final verdict of an expert that the enitre system is radically imper- 
fect and unsound, then it makes no difference whether you paid 
much or little — you have been cheated. 

Now I find in your last State report that Superintendent Gwynne's 
examinations show him that in some districts of Salem county no 
educational progress whatever has been made. He doesn't say 



10 

which districts, and we can't tell whether one of them is Harrison- 
ville, which pays a male teacher five dollars a week, and has 31 out 
of its 78 children of school age in average enrollment. But if 
Harrisonville is one of them, then that five dollars a week is worse 
than thrown away. It might be extravagant for that district to 
pay a teacher a hundred dollars a month, but if he gave them a 
school that was a school, it would be less extravagant than to pay 
five dollars a week for a school that was not a school. 

So the first question for taxpayers is not how much their school 
costs, but how much of a school it is. If it does not perform the 
functions of a school; if the children attend irregularly and 
get no profit when they are there, then at any price it is a shock- 
ingly bad investment for the district. ISTay, it may be worse than 
a useless expenditure. Ignorant trustees have now and then built 
school-houses in unhealthful localities, or without proper sanitary 
arrangements, where every day's attendance has sown the seeds of 
debility and death. Careless trustees have hired teachers who 
were a moral pestilence. 

In a discussion before the State Association of Michigan in 1888, 
Prof. Hinsdale pointed out that the purely democratic system of 
government had developed into the representative system in all its 
functions except two : maintaining schools and repairing roads. 
He concludes : 

" The district system of conducting common schools rests upon 
an idea, and proceeds by means of an organization, that has not 
been preserved by English-speaking people for any other purpose, 
save for the one to which I have just made reference — the roads. 
And it would be hard to say which are the worse managed — the 
schools or the roads." 

So taxpayers should welcome any system which will ensure them 
the worth of their money. This the township system will tend to 
secure by greater economy of business management, better care of 
school property, and more discriminating selection of teachers. 
Since there are no district lines to limit the attendance fewer 
school-houses will be needed, and these will be built more intelli- 
gently, more healthfully, and more economically. The text-book 
question will be simplified, since the books will necessarily be 
uniform for the town and are likely to be for the county ; and 
may be purchased by the town-board either for free use or for sale at 
cost. In like manner libraries, books of reference, apparatus, 
maps, charts, globes and the like, may be purchased for the entire 
town, and each district profit by the common expenditure. The 
expenses of administration will be less, taxes will be collected more 



11 

certainly and with less cost, wealthy men can no longer evade 
their just share of taxation by securing alteration of a fictitious 
district boundary, law-suits will be rarer, and in general there will 
be comparative protection from inexperienced and incompetent 
management. The same money will go farther ; taxpayers will 
be surer of getting what they pay for. 

Fortunately this argument is no longer merely theoretical ; it is 
supported by facts, where both systems have been tried together. 
In the 52d State Report of Michigan, Superintendent Estabrook 



" The reports from Alpena county furnish some significant facts 
bearing upon the equalization of school privileges and the cost of 
maintaining schools under the township plan. In this county 
five townships have their schools organized on the township plan 
by special legislation. Two retain the district system. The aver- 
age per capita expense of the schools in the township districts for 
the last school year, as shown by the reports of township boards of 
school inspectors was 113.71, and in those retaining the district 
system it was $14.80. The average length of school in the town- 
ship districts was 9 months ; in the others, 4^ months. In other 
words it cost 114. 80 to give each child 4|- months' schooling in the 
towns retaining the district system, while in those operated under 
the township plan the cost per pupil for 9 months' schooling was 
$13.71.'' 

But the township system will do more than make better bargains : 
it will remedy a great deal of manifest injustice. The principle 
that to him who hath shall be given has never been better illus- 
trated than in our present educational expenditure. The current 
of American life is toward the cities ; every year the villages grow 
larger, the rural districts lose population. Hence it is constantly 
easier for the villages and harder for the rural districts to maintain 
good schools. You can select two districts in New Jersey where a 
tax of a half of one per cent will provide a better school in the 
one than a tax of five per cent will in the other. Your State is in 
advance of most others in making the minimum appropriation of 
State money to each district $275, and to this extent you equalize 
these disparities. But still it is absolutely impossible for many 
rural districts to raise by tax an additional sum sufficient to main- 
tain a good school. 

I find there are a hundred districts in your State which do not 
raise any tax additional to this $275, and one entire town, Paha- 
quarry in Warren county, where not a single district even spent so 
much as the $275 it received from the State. 



12 

In this town the two men teachers were paid an average of not 
qviite $7.00 a week, and the woman teacher $7.50. Of the 78 
children enrolled, 4 attended eight months, 9 six months, 19 four 
months, 46 less than four months, and the average number enrolled 
was 38. How can our schools be called public schools when a child 
born in Pahaquarry is at such a disadvantage as compared with a 
child born in Asbury Park ? 

Fundamentally, the whole matter rests upon a simple principle, 
that every child of the State has an equal right to the education 
provided by the State. If we tax for public education at all, we 
must not offer one kind of education to the city child, and an 
inferior kind to the country child. The boy born on a bleak hill- 
side farm is entitled to equal opportunities with the millionaire's 
son in the city. You must not fill up your high-school faculties 
with Ph. D.'s, and leave your back districts to the teaching of half- 
fledged amateurs. 

'*But," interposes an objector, with a wise smile, '^if your 
principle is sound, why not carry it further ? You say education 
must be open to all on equal terms. Now, however good schools 
you provide, not all children can live equally near to them. "Why 
not send around a carriage every morning, to bring to school those 
who would have too far to walk ? " 

He is quite right ; the principle leads logically to this conclusion. 
But instead of being as he supposes a reducUo ad ahsurdum, it is a 
sensible and practicable proposal, already widely adopted in Massa- 
chusetts, and emphatically insisted upon by Dr. Harris, Commis- 
sioner of Education, as the most economical as well as the most 
equitable plan for sparsely settled districts. 

*' But this involves large outlay on the part of cities and villages 
for the benefit of their poorer neighbors." No doubt ; so does the 
State tax, which in our neighboring Pennsylvania has just been 
increased from two millions to five. An enormous amount of that 
five millions will be paid out by Philadelphia for the benefit of the 
back country districts. But Philadelphia can afford it. What 
makes her a great city but her great men ? And where do those 
great men come from but from these back country distrticts ? 
Stop the inflow to that city of the health and energy and intelli- 
gence of country boys, and grass will grow on Chestnut street. 

The trouble has been in all our great cities that these boys have 
brought more of health and energy and native intelligence than 
they have of thorough education. They have been keen, but they 
have been narrow ; they have brought force, but they have lacked 



13 

refinement ; often they have brought more shrewdness than prin- 
ciple, more regard for the end than for the means. Power com- 
mands respect ; we cannot dispense with the self-made man even 
if he does worship his creator. But well could our cities and vil- 
lages afford to pay for a public education so thorough, so compre- 
hensive, and so universal that it should be sure to make sound and 
symmetrical the characters of these exceptional boys and girls who 
are bound to make their mark, and eventually to become control- 
lers of public affairs. 

And this suggest the question of compulsory education. In 
principle the right of the State to tax for public schools does not 
depend on the desire of the taxpayers to have their children well- 
educated, but upon the necessity to the State of self-protection 
from ignorance and vice. But without a compulsory system the 
very children most likely to be dangerous to the State may get 
none of the education the State pays for, and the fundamental 
purpose of the law fail of accomplishment. Now no compulsory 
law could be devised that would work effectively in the present 
school-districts of New Jersey. A prime essential to its success 
would be the adoption of the township system. 

As regards the taxpayer, then, the case seems simple. He 
is paying and he must continue to pay a great deal of money for 
public schools. If he wants to be sure to get the most for that 
money, he must vote for the township system. 

II. THE TEACHEE. 

In looking over the last report of your State Board of Educa- 
tion I find Superintendent Morse complaining because trustees 
lack discernment in hiring teachers ; Sup't Wilbur reporting a 
district where the teacher was discharged on the principle of 
Methodist itineracy merely because she had been there two years ; 
while Sup't Lockwood reports several districts where one year in a 
place is considered quite enough for a teacher. Surely this is not 
likely to secure the best teachers, or to inspire to their best efforts 
such teachers as are secured. 

The two great requisites to a profession of teaching are discrimi- 
nation in hiring, and permanency of appointment. Both of these 
are promoted by the township system. Instead of a multitude 
of ignorant or indifferent trustees, unacquainted with other schools 
than their own, and hiring a teacher as they would stick an old hat 
into a broken window-pane, merely to stop a chink, choosing him 
instead of some other because he happens to chime in best with 
their whims or to be a cousin of a deceased wife's uncle, there 



14 

would be a town-board of considerable permanence, accustomed to 
compare the work of the teachers in the various schools, and com- 
petent to dismiss or promote according to the work really done. 

The schools, instead of being, as Prof. Barr says, a rope of sand, 
would have organic connection, and form part of a system in which 
each would get help from all the rest. A common course of study 
and common examinations would provide for just comparison of 
the work done by the different teachers, leading to healthful emu- 
lation and to the deserved reward of superiority. Hence the 
wages of efficient teachers would rise, while the inefficient would 
be gradually dropped from the ranks. 

In short the tendency of the township system would be toward 
the development of a profession of teaching, where unprepared 
novices would have no foothold, and experts would command the 
respect and the salary their ability deserves. 

County superintendents would be gainers in every way. They 
would escape the frittering away of their time upon district 
boundaries and other petty details, would have fewer and more 
intelligent school-officers to deal with, could secure the statistics 
needed for accurate reports, could make the school law better 
understood and enforced, could introduce considerable grading 
into the county schools, and give much more time to visitation. 
The office would gain both in dignity and in efficiency. 

III. THE PUPIL. 

Finally the pupil would for the first time enjoy in fact what he 
has always enjoyed in theory, — an equal right to a thorough edu- 
cation with every other pupil in the State. The rural schools 
would have practically the advantages of village schools, a town- 
ship high-school would bring secondary education within the reach 
of every farmer's boy, and no imaginary district-boundary would 
send a child a mile away to school when there was a good school 
near home. 

"But why do all of these advantages happen to depend on the 
township system ?" some one asks: " what is there in the town- 
ship that happens to make it just the right size for a unit of school 
management ?" 

As a Yankee, let me reply by another question : " Why are the 
rails of the Pennsylvania road four feet eight and one-half inches 
apart ?" Originally the distance might have been four feet six or 
four feet ten, and it would have made little difference. But four 
feet eight and a half inches happened to be the size that Eobert 
Stevenson first employed so that his cars would hold just so many 



15 



tons of coal ; and that size is now so universally in use and with 
such general satisfaction that roads which have varied from it have 
had to lay their rails over. 

So with us the township is an established unit in such general 
use and with such fixed boundaries that it is not likely to be dis- 
turbed. Experience proves that the county is too large a unit, the 
district is too small, but the township is just about large enough 
to ensure economical and intelligent administration, without los- 
ing local pride and interest. New Jersey has adapted all her rail- 
roads to the standard gauge, and it is time for her to fall into line 
with her sister-States in the adoption of the standard school-unit 
as provided by the Township System. 



-THE SCHOOL BJILLETiy PUBLICATIONS.- 



Biographies of Noted Educators. 

1. Pestalozzi : his Aim and Work. By Baron De Gumps. Translated by 
Margaret Cuthbertson Crombie. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 3.36, $1-50. 

" A teacher knowing nothing of Pestalozzi would be like the lawyer that 
has never hoard of Blackstone. "SVe commend this book strongly as specially 
adapted to younger students of pedagogy." — Ohio EdH Monthly, June, 1889. 

" To those who seek to know how one of the world's greatest reformers 
planned and executed his work, how this and that grand principle was 
wrought out, how truth was dissociated from error, this volume will be a 
delightful treasure. And there are many such who are not content to know 
the name and nothing more, but seek to understand the man and the motive. 
To such this book is indispensable." — Educational Courant, July, 1889. 

S. Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel. Translated and annotated by 
Emtt.te Michaelis and H. Keatlet Moore. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 183, $1.50. 

" fle vsrites so simply and confidentially that no one can fail to under- 
stand everything in this new translation. It would be of great benefit to 
American youth for fathers and mothers to read this book for themselves, 
instead of leaving it entirely to professional teachers."— ^'eio York Herald. 
Aug. 4, 1889. 

5. A Memoir of Roger Ascham, by Samuel John-son, LL.D. ; and Selec- 
tions from the Life of Thomas Arnold, by Dean Staxlet. Edited, with 
Introductions and Xotes by James S. Caeusle. Cloth, ICmo, pp. 252, $1-00. 

Besides the biography of Ascham in fuU this volume contains selections 
from " The Scholemaster," with fac-simile of the ancient title-page. From 
Stanley's " Life of Arnold " those chapters have been taken which refer to 
his work as a teacher, and are published without change. Thus the book 
gives in small compass and at a low price all that is most important in the 
lives of these two great teachers. 

A. John Amos Comenius, Bishop of the Moravians ; his Life and Educa- 
tional WorJcs. Cloth, 12mo, pp. 223, Sl-00. 

Our recent republication of his famous OrMs Pictus has added interest 
to the life of the famous reformer. 

5. Essays on Edncational Peformers. By R. H. Quick. Cloth, 16mo, 
pp.331, S1.50. 

Much the best edition of this famous work, which its vivacious style 
makes the most interesting of educational histories. 

6. Pedagogical Biography. A series of reprints from Quick's " Educa- 
tional r.efornier.?," giving the most important sketches separately, in pam- 
phlet form, at a uniform price of 15 cts. each. There are 7 numbers, as follows: 

I. The Jesuits, Ascham, Montaigne, Eatich, iMUton. 

II. John Amos Comenius. HI. John Locke. 

IV. Jean Jacques Kousseau. V. John Bernhard Basedow. 

VI. Joseph Jacotot. VII. John Henry Pestalozzi. 

C. V/. DARDEEN^, Publisher, Syracuse, N. Y. 



School Bulletin Teachers' Agency. 

ZSIoT ONE desirable place in fifty is filled now-a-days except directly or 
inairectly through the medium of a Teachers' Agency. Nearly all teachers 
holding responsible positions are themselves enrolled in some Agency and 
give to this Agency immediate information of prospective changes. Hence 
an outside teacher has no chance to learn of vacancies. Before he hears of 
them they have been filled by candidates notified by the Agency. A pro- 
gressive teacher could afford the annual fee for enrolment in an Agency for 
the infonnation alone. He miiSrht not care to use it, but it is worth two dol- 
lars a year to be sure he has missed no opportunities he would like to know 
of. 

The Best Agencies, however, do not depend on information alone. By 
repeated successes, by fair dealing and through the influence of the teach- 
ers tlaey have placed, they have won the confidence of many school boards 
and employing principals. There are hundreds of schools that systematically 
engage all their teachers through an Agency and will not consider applica- 
tions from any other source. 

,The Fact is, matters do not go so much by chance as they used to in fill- 
ing vacancies. Time was when nothing was said or thought of changes till 
the end of the year, but nowadays teachers and school boards both have 
their eyes wide open. We happen to know as we write that a man now 
principal of a $1600 school will before the end of the year be appointed 
teacher in one of the normal schools. We are pretty well satisfied that a 
man now getting $1400 will have the $1600 place. If he gets it we have our 
eye on another man now getting $1100 who will be glad of the $1400 place : 
in every case because these men are especially fitted for these places and 
desirous of them. All this in January. Now next June some principal who 
saves his two dollars by not registering in an Agency will read in the morn- 
ing newspaper that Principal So-and-so has been appointed to such a chair 
in such a normal school, and will pack his valise, take the train, and hurry 
off to Principal So-and-so's present place to apply for his position before 
anyone else gets there. It will surprise him to learn that the vacancy was 
provided for six months before— if he does find it out. He has saved his two 
dollars registration fee but he has lost his time, his car-fare, and whatever 
chance he stood of the place. 

One year we sent Principal Poland to the Jersey City high school at 
$2500 ; that left a vacancy at Ilion which we filled by sending Principal Win- 
ne at $1600 ; that left a vacancy at Canastota which we filled by sending 
Principal Ottaway at $1200; that left a vacancy at Amsterdam Academy, and 
so on. 

Did you ever see people stand in line at the post-office waiting for their 
mail? As each one is supplied he goes away, giving place to the next, and 
so there is a continual moving-up ; the man who keeps his place in the line 
will eventually get to the head. In no profession is there so frequent and 
so rapid moving-up as in teaching. To get to the top, do your work well 
where you are and keep registered. Presently you will be the man that fits 
and will be elected, and if you do fit when you get there the Agency will 
keep its eye on you for the next fit. Try it. 

It is Important, however, not only to register, but to register in the 
Agency most likely to help you. Without reflection upon others it may be 
said with confidence that the School Bulletin Agency is safe and trustworthy. 
Aaron Gove, superintendent of schools in Denver, Colo., and late president 
of the National Teachers' Association, said in the Colorado School Journal 
for July, 1890: 

"The ScJwol Bulletin, edited, owned, and conducted by C. W. Bardeen, 
at Syracuse, N. Y., is an old and reliable school .iournal. Its proprietor is a 
school man and understands his business He is also at the head of an ed- 
ucational bureau As at present advised, we are suspicions of bureaus unless 

we knoiu the man at the head.'" 

" The man at the head " of the School Bulletin Agency makes personal 
selection of every teacher recommended. Send for circulars. 

"C. W. BARDEEN, Proprietor, Syracuse, N. Y. 





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